Vison of Life...It speaks about my views towards what's happening around us, though many of the things represents Pune, a becoming Metro in Maharashtra,India yet most of us live in similar city life. In city day to day life all we face is problems around us; from traffic to water to slums to power supply & many more, but who has solutions? That's why the name
Vison of Life!
Sanjay Deshpande

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

A Piece of Forest Within Me!

Every time I look at a tree, it teaches me to be patient. Every
time I look at the grass it teaches me to dance on the tunes of wind...Carl
Sagan.

Carl
Edward Sagan was an American astronomer, cosmologist, astrophysicist,
astrobiologist, author, science popularizer, science communicator in astronomy &
other natural sciences & what not! And his above quote reflects every
scientists respect towards the nature. I am not any way near to his level while
choosing words to describe nature but the feelings are always similar
especially when I am in forests which are probably the best form of the nature.
As it’s here when you look at anything around may it be a birds beauty or
blueness of sky or a wild flower dancing on the tunes of air or a gazelle
running across vast grass lands or may it be a tree standing like a silent
observer of the entire surrounding; everything tells you something rather as
Carl said, teaches you something about life! And this time when I reached at
kadbanwadi grass land, then I realized that I have forgotten my 500mm lens,
& was irritated with myself but then I asked myself, why I am going to
kadbanwadi i.e. a small grassland forest near Pune; to click the snaps or to be
in the nature? And as soon I was there in the grassland & gazelles, locally
known as chinkaras, the irritation melted the way winter fog melts with the
rise of sun!

This
winter seems to strike green gold for me as immediately coming from my week
long trip to tadoba & kanha, I could again get away & be in a forest
which many of the Punekars even don’t know that it exists so near to them! In
past few years wild life tourism has got tremendous popularity mainly within
Metro cities crowd & it’s a matter of status now to have visited at least
one national park amongst the higher classes of society from cities like Mumbai
& Pune! It achieves two things , one is you feel like are a nature lover
& doing something for nature & then you can proudly say that you have
sighted a tiger in forest & speak with authority in the evening social
parties about topic like “Save Tiger”! Well, whatever the reason may be
but this has made destinations like kanha, tadoba, ranthambore, pench,
bandhavgad, kabini & many more as hot tourist places as Singapore &
Dubai now is a fact. And it’s these tourists only whose spending does help the
locals over these places is a good side of the tourism. So nothing to complaint
about, but does being a nature lover means you have seen a tiger in the forest
& just visited one of the above mentioned forests which are in elite club
of wild life sanctuaries? For a city like Pune which is surrounded by western
ghats & grass lands from all sides, a lot has at offer when it comes to
wild life, provided we should understand what is a wild life in actual? For example as
a resident of concrete jungle like Pune, ask yourself that in your city life
how many times you have noticed chirping of the birds in your home or office? Rather how many birds or insects or animals you have seen other than domestic animals
like cow & buffalo & birds like pigeon or crow? How many times you have
seen clear blue sky & felt the fresh cool breeze with pure oxygen? How many
times you have looked at sky & tried to count the stars shining brightly?
How many times you have stopped to look at grass with waves forming by the
blowing wind & a bright colored wild flower? When last you have tried to chase a butterfly or has seen you kids doing it? When did you remember last a
walk on a dusty road with looking for foot prints of various animals &
guessed who has walked on the road you have taken? I am sure in our daily life
we have not only forgot to get asked these question but we have forgot
importance of these small things; we have forgot what it is being with nature
& that’s the greatest loss we can have. As life is not turnover on rupees
or promotions or penthouse & cars & latest cell phone but life is in
the things which comes free of cost & right around us. Agreed money &
all other things it can buy are important but if in the process we are
forgetting living then what’s use of it?

And
here is where the small pieces of land like kadbanwadi can make the difference
in our money oriented life. Not necessary we have to spend few days & lots
of travel to be in forest to feel the answers of all above questions but all
one can do is be a little curios & search a bit & forest in many forms
is in our own neighborhood! Problem is these spots are not famous & neither
any one is taking efforts for the same to do so. Why kanha & tadoba like
forests are in lime light? One answer is they have tigers & unfortunately
all the wild life tourism in our country revolves around the tiger. But it’s
high time for all the NGO’s as well Govt machinery to make common man realize
the importance of forests first. And when we say forest, it includes all such
locations may it be kadbanwadi grass lands or bhimashankar ever green forest or
bhigwan like water bodies or phansad type costal area forests & western
ghats, so many of them around our Pune city! Similarly most of the districts of
our State are fortunate to have many small forest lands which are natural
habitats of many wild life species from reptiles to mammals to birds, the need
is to identify all such spots & make it public. This will achieve two
rather three purposes, first is all these places are like hidden natural
treasures & all those who can’t afford to go to big parks can visit here
& understand the forests better & second is the tourism will bring in
the much needed money for the locals around these places which indirectly will
help to conserve these places which or else are in grave danger of
deforestization due to various reasons, mainly population rise &
urbanization! And
third is, best way of awareness towards the forests is by actually being in the
forests & if more & more people will be in forests via
locations like kadbanwadi, then that will be best way to make people aware
about the necessity of such piece of lands around us & what millions of
rupees of media campaign can’t achieve will be achieved in much cheaper &
direct way for the forests!

But
for this we need to have a proper infrastructure at every such spot. To start
with how people will know that such piece of land exists in their neighborhood?
For that forest dept & tourism dept needs to get in hand & prepare a
list of such spots in the form of booklet along with snaps as well location
maps & information about what to see here. This information can be made
available on respective web sites as well updated periodically. There has to be
proper signage as well way boards & hoardings on highways as well on
internal roads which are a must, so the visitors can reach there properly. For e.g. there are
hundreds of hoardings along the Solapur highway from Pune displaying townships
which are concrete jungles we create but not a single hoarding, even not at the
turn to kadbanwadi, displaying location of this original jungle! So
how a common man will know that it exists so near to the main road? Then the
basic infrastructure like some information center at the start of forest itself
& things like restrooms or cafeterias which can be easily made as land is
not a problem. We can also think of accommodation arrangements which will be a
boon for professional wild lifers as they can then have exposure of forest at
night as well early morning, which are best hours for sighting of animals! Here
we need to learn from countries like USA where at the remotest tourist places
these basic amenities are always available & in good form. Here we can take
local peoples assistance & all these activities can be of used as their
income. Youngsters from the locals can assist the tourists as guides & show
them around the wild life & this is possible with some minimum training for
which many NGO’s are available. We can display photographs of local flora &
fauna by asking the visitors to their captures which most of them I am sure
will do it happily. Things like cycle rides also can be thought of making
cycles available at the information centers, which can give opportunity to the
visitors to get nearer to the nature without disturbing the same. Also it will
be another source of income. We can think of taking yearly competition of
photography of such locations all around the State, making more & more
people visit these places & that’s sure way to make it known to the masses.

We
can tie up with schools in Pune & nearby towns & arrange visits of
school children at such forests as well sign JV’s with the tour operators
especially with organizations like Nature walk or Pugmarks, who are specialized
in wild life tourism. This will help us to reach out to large spectrum of
society. At the same time it’s very much important to protect these forests
from surrounding urbanization & need to provide proper staff which will be
enough to protect its boundaries & keep the encroachers away! What we
should do is undertake forest like Kadbanwadi as pilot project & try to
convert it in to the tourist friendly forest & then we can replicate the
pattern for all other such locations. So
many things can be done for kadbanwadis around us, all what one needs is some
chosen one taking lead on this front & frankly its job of every individual
who loves the forests, to become that chosen one instead waiting for someone to
do get delivered from the skies for this role!

At
the end of the day, in today’s life all what we need is our own piece of forest! And in
a way we all have a piece of a forest within us, which most of us have locked
& forgot the key to it. Its places like kadbanwadi which will open that lock for
us, as just one visit here & it will make us realize that dancing grass,
vistleting winds, blue sky & chirping birds, all these are very much
essential for our survival! Rather it’s these things which make us living
specie or else there won’t be any difference between the gadgets we use &
our own self!